I was almost six when “It’s My Party” blasted the radio airways and went to #1 in 63′ but out of all her hits from the early-mid 60s, the song playing would ultimately become my favorite. “You Don’t Own Me” was released just 8 months later and really showcased her vocals. Only 10 years older than me at 16 her career took off.

All the musicians here are seasoned players each having produced albums on their own and apart of other bands of notoriety. Peter Erskine has performed the longest playing on over 500 albums and has won a Grammy when he was with Weather Report.

This particular song I just sort of latched onto. Written by guitarist Nguyên Lê it reminded me of an improvisation of three separate players only on the same song and it just worked. I like the European flavor.

You can provide two different forms of ID from the following list (ex: a bank statement and a library card, but not two bank statements). The names on your IDs must match each other, and one of the IDs must include a photo or date of birth that matches the information on your profile.

If you don’t have an ID that shows your authentic name as well as your photo or date of birth, you can provide two forms of ID from Option 2 above, and then provide a government ID that includes a date of birth or photo that matches the information on your profile. We won’t add the name or other information from the government ID to your account.

Chico Hamilton played among some masterful jazz artists and throughout his career starting in the 50s produced countless albums as leader but he regarded this particular line up of Charles Lloyd, Albert Stinson, Gabor Szabo and George Bohannon to be his greatest band.

Not too hard to hear why.

This Charles Lloyd composition is fabulous and also expresses and displays what a great sax player he was.

When you can get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas to attend and march in unity with all the bad blood between the two at war with each other, joining 50 world leaders along with millions of people. I can’t be the only one asking where in the hell was President Obama?

But no President Obama or Vice President Joe Biden, S.O.S. John Kerry, neither speaker John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.

My God, Attorney General Eric Holder was there for a meeting and he wouldn’t even join in the march with the other heads of State. The lone person? Ambassador to France Jane Hartley and who would know of her?

Journalists, Illustrationists, Satirists using pencils, Cowards came with machine guns and bullets over cartoons. They illustrated a sad example of what in their mind is God, once again demonizing the very thing they worship and they wonder why some question their deranged beliefs. What in-fact was accomplished by this slaughter, that Islam needs to be eradicated from this earth. The very thing the cartoons that upset them made fun of. They themselves convinced it in stone.

This French satirical paper is not dead. It now speaks more loudly and clearly than ever before. Stephane Charbonnier (Charb) along with Cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut and Bernard ‘Tignous’ Verlhac, as well as economist Bernard Maris, two police officers and the rest who were barbarically massacred will live on forever here on Earth and in Heaven.

The terrorists defining what hell is that they come from.

A sad day for France and many families but the Freedom Of Speech will live on, make no mistake about that. The explosions of pencils will be even more alive, drawings of truth the terrorists try to kill.

This beautiful ballad written by Italian native Paolo Fresu appears on two of his albums, “Qvarto” released in 1988 and “Night on the City” in 1995.

He has been playing for 30 years, based in Sardinia where he was born, Bologna & Paris he has over 300 recordings as well having written music for films, documentaries and theater.

This international artist has played throughout the world along with and amongst the biggest names of American music as well. If you didn’t know of him it’s about time you did. I lost count of the albums he has produced as leader and a part of since the early 80’s straight through this last year with many more works in progress.

This Italian native has been producing music since the early 70s. Started with the Italian rock band “Perigeo” then in 1975 joined “Rome Trio” and never looked back.

Danilo Rea has performed with some of Jazz’s elite, playing piano with the likes of Chet Baker, Art Farmer and many more. In the 80s he recorded more and more of his own works onto a plentiful supply of albums.

This particular trio does a beautiful arrangement & rendition of a Alberto Barberis classic. This entire album had me struggling of which song to highlight but then that saves more for a later time. Both bassist Ares Tavolazzi & drummer Roberto Gatto give the music the right amount of smoke to complete that full flavor.

Another sad day when such an iconic artist that showcased the most historical concert of all time dies. Yes all of us are getting older but it still stings and stuns us when one from our own tribe, the boomer generation leaves us.

There wasn’t anybody who he didn’t record with or who didn’t want to record with him and everyone within jazz knew him as a legend. Yet for whatever reason his name strangely isn’t as synonymous as other sax greats.

His did his first session work in 1944 at the age of 19 after Benny Goodman discovered him, three years later he would join Woody Herman’s Second Herd.

At 25 he lead this particular quartet with Gerry Wiggins, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke and laid down what would become one of my favorites works of his.

Recorded in Paris, France on June 16, 1950 “I Understand” seems to sum up what all his fans caught onto hearing his style of playing early on.

He was more than a TV news anchor although that’s one of the reasons he reigned number one and regarded as the King of the news here. No he was much more, Bill Bonds was hard-core journalist at its finest. Old school reporting, he wanted the what were and always should be the basic rules of the profession.

The Who, What, When, Where and Why.

He demanded the answers, from those he interviewed and from the reporters on the street working at the station. We all grew up in Detroit watching all three channels 2,4 & 7 and in the end it would always lead back to WXYZ for only one reason, Bill Bonds.

A powerhouse reporter who got down to the grit of a story and there was none better for not letting anyone off the hook until he gained the answers and what was the truth.

Happy Birthday Gregg Allman!

Once I was glad
Always happy, never sad
And everyday
Seemed like Sunday…………

I always felt sorry for Gregg, with the loss of Duane then a year later Barry it seemed the whole world was ripped out from under him. How he managed to forge through life at that point let alone music it still astounds me. But with his talent how could it have been kept down.

There’s a sadness in his first solo album “Laid Back” yet the songs come out like a fire from a broken still mending heart. Through thick and thin this man has blessed and given all of us the best part of that heart and that’s why the music within him will always carry on.

I have listened to this love theme at times up to 50 in a row in one sitting, I kid you not. Can anybody really play it like the original trumpeter who played in the film score, Uan Rasey? Simply No.

Rasey was the best there was yet his name seemed to sit in the shadows of the movie houses where we watched and heard it in. This mans trumpet would be heard in countless scores throughout Hollywood cinema history.

I’ve heard Terrance Blanchard’s rendition multiple times but I still always came back to Nicholas Payton’s.

He just seems to capture this atmospheric mood that composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote better than anyone else other than Rasey. From the very matching opening to the end, I love the brush drums throughout. What a piece of magic.

In her last mount of the card in the 9th race Jane Magrell’s horse, 4 year-old Aggie H who finished 7th collapsed just past the wire causing Magrell to take a very hard spill and lose consciousness.

Rushed to Hillcrest Hospital it is reported that she suffered a concussion and an MRI confirmed two fractures to the neck. Thankfully upon regaining consciousness she was able to move her extremities. As of this moment no surgery is needed.

Sources close to her say she will be closely monitored and will remain hospitalized 24-48 hours if no further complications. Will be in a neck brace for some time and will need much rest.

Madrid, Spain born film director & composer Javier Elorrieta stepped out of cinema and slipped into his other passion, singing. Hooking up with four jazz musicians they all put out a great rendition of the 1965 French Classic, La Boheme.

Written by Jacques Plante and Charles Aznavour (sung by originally) it became an International hit.

This interpretation of the composition for me took it up a thousand notches.

I also added an Instrumental version by the French Jazz Trio underneath as their take was even more inviting without the vocals.

Third album self band entitled with vocals of Steve Marriott, Greg Ridley & Peter Frampton. All complementing each other yet nobody in rock will ever top Marriott’s, he was in a league and world of his own.

Live with Me was just a mere taste of Rock Blue’s best, with the natural-born soul within Steve’s. I’ve also added the Live Rendition that the band did in Sept. of 1970 for John Peel’s Soundboard/BBC, although mono even more seductive and raw.

God I still get chills hearing this fantastically beautiful song. Marty Balin’s vocals cut straight through your heart, the instrumentation almost haunting.

Frank Sinatra said he thought “Something” was the best love song ever written, truth be told if “Today” had gotten the airplay it deserved from its 67′ release I think the Marty Balin & Paul Kanter composition might have been reconsidered. To me it had more passion and the harmonies priceless.

This song along with Balin’s “Comin’ Back to Me” were Airplane’s most hidden gems and so over-shadowed by White Rabbit & Somebody To Love off the same album. They were so underplayed it was a crying shame.

Yes the more psychedelic acid rock ones struck their chords amidst the trips, but you can’t deny that these softer also psychedelic in nature speaking of love didn’t take their rightful place.

A lot of stunned friends right now at racetracks from Michigan and beyond who knew Larry.

A genuine good natured personality with a smile that will be missed forever.

A man so knowledgeable he helped create the Michigan Racing Law of 1995, which legalized full-card simulcasting for the states tracks. Elected President of the MIHBPA in the late 90s he would hold that position through the early 2000’s.

I will never forget watching Pongo Boy’s races at the Detroit Race Course in the mid 90’s. He would bring trainer Larry Uelmen 12 stake wins.

On Hazel Park’s opening night he would be one of the first faces I’d see, great big smile and welcoming handshake and hug. In 1996 the trainer I worked for was across from his barn. In all the years I worked on the backside I never ever heard one unkind word said about this man because it was never warranted.

Larry had a great sense of humor and always offered a helping hand to anybody who needed it. You never had to ask, he’d just was there for people. When Pinnacle Race Course opened, for me it had been ten long years since I had seen anybody since I didn’t travel to GLD. So many us shared a story or two from DRC that brought laughter.

On Saturday nights card in the 5th race his mount Ashado Cat running stride for stride with the winner of the race stumbled and went down in the stretch with Terry once again taking a hard spill, the second within 7 months. He had only returned to Mountaineer within the last month.

On the March 1 opener he suffered a fractured collar-bone and three chipped vertebrates and underwent surgery. He wore a neck brace for 6 weeks, rested then went through extensive physical therapy.

In late July for the first time in his life in his native hometown of Hazel Park, Mi. he stepped onto Hazel Park Raceway’s track to ease back into exercise riding in the mornings. Then on Friday Aug. 29th he rode his very first mount of the night aboard Unbridled Isabel to victory.

He would have 7 mounts out of the 8 thoroughbred races that night. In all TD Houghton would have two wins, two seconds and a third for his return with every single racing fan by the thousands, family members and a tribe of race-tracker workers friends cheering and yelling him a very welcome home. I being one of them.

The next night he would chalk up three more wins and the following weekends more of the same. In the middle of Sept. he returned to W. Virginia which had been his home base and continued to race great. Back to Michigan for sire race day on Sept. 27th, he captured even more wins.

The battle this man has fought over and over and over again to fight and come back from severe injuries only to conquer them and return a winning warrior, this latest injury has saddened and devastated all of us who know Terry and know what he’s gone through.

Upon hearing the news Sat. evening I literally broke down and cried.

At this point I can only tell you from an update I received from his good friend, former DRC trainer Bill Jenkins he has a hairline fracture of the neck not close to his last injury, slight fracture of nose and is suffering in a lot of pain on his left side but was alert and talking.

He was being transferred to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian Hospital for further tests and evaluation. I can only pray with all my heart that no severe internal injuries will be found.

Terry has a lot of prayers going up to the Lord right now from W. Virginia to here at home in Michigan.

Will pray non-stop for you my friend that God will quickly ease and heal your pain and injuries. Also praying for his family.

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